Page 46 - Harnett Life Summer 2020

Make a Commitment to More Family Meals

FAMILY FEATURES
pending moments together
with loved ones carries obvious
benefits like time to catch up
Sand opportunities to bond,
but sharing meals actually provides
definitive value for families. With
restricted social interactions and
confinement at home due to COVID-
19, many families are facing meal
challenges that have shifted from
juggling busy schedules to seeking new
ways to mix up the traditional menu or
using digital solutions to reconnect at a
virtual table.
A study published in the “Journal
of Nutrition Education and Behavior”
funded by the FMI Foundation shows
that more frequent family meals are
associated with better dietary and family
functioning outcomes. The results build
on years of previous research studies
to punctuate the creation of the Family
Meals Movement, which encourages
Americans to pledge to share one more
family breakfast, lunch or dinner at
home per week.
Consider these notable findings from
the study:
n Family meals improve fruit and
vegetable consumption. Studies
show a positive relationship
between family meal frequency
and fruit and vegetable intake
when examined separately, but
also when fruit and vegetable
intake are combined.
n Family meals improve family
dynamics. Nearly all the studies
included in the systematic review
and meta-analysis demonstrated
a positive relationship between
family meal frequency and measures
of family functioning. Family
functioning is defined as family
connectedness, communication,
expressiveness and problem-solving.
“There are thousands of individual
studies that examine the impact of
family meals on nutrition and family
behavior, but this meta-analysis looks
at the relationship between family
meal frequency and family functioning
outcomes,” said David Fikes, executive
director of the FMI Foundation. “We
can confirm that family meals are
a valuable contributor of improved
nutrition and family dynamics.”
Find tips, recipes and ways to
increase your family meal frequency
despite COVID-19 circumstances
at familymealsmovement.org. German Fruit Tart